This is potentially a huge moment for Alabama Crimson Tide football going forward. After floundering in some capacities offensively last year under a makeshift staff, Kalen DeBoer was finally able to successfully hire the offensive coordinator he knows and trusts in Ryan Grubb. They have worked together several times before, most notably on the 2022-23 Washington Huskies staffs of note.
Grubb was initially going to follow DeBoer to Tuscaloosa last offseason once it became apparent that he was going to replace Nick Saban at Alabama. Instead, Grubb opted to stay in Seattle to be Mike Macdonald's first offensive coordinator on the Seattle Seahawks. After one year on the job, Grubb was let go and he needed to find a new place to work. Fortunately for him, DeBoer was still interested.
The good news for last year's co-offensive coordinators Nick Sheridan and JaMarcus Shephard is that they will be retained by DeBoer on his second staff. After all, they were already on his first Alabama staff coming over from Washington and were somewhat forced into a co-offensive coordinator role once Grubb decided to give the NFL a shot. This move does improve Alabama a bit.
Alabama went 9-4 in DeBoer's first season on the job, going 5-3 in SEC play and losing a bowl game.
SOURCE :Alabama is set to hire Ryan Grubb as the Tide offensive coordinator. He will reunite with Kalen DeBoer. They first worked together back at Sioux Falls almost 20 years ago. @ESPNRittenberg first reported the move.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) February 3, 2025
My only real concern about the Grubb hire is if DeBoer is dead-set on making Alabama ... Washington.
Alabama hires Ryan Grubb as their offensive coordinator going forward
Overall, I think that clever offensive play-calling can work in any conference with any type of coach. At times, Alabama felt deficient in that regard a year ago, maybe even two if we want to pile on Tommy Rees and his one year on the job two seasons ago... However, I would love nothing more than for DeBoer to become more with Alabama than trying to seemingly change everything since taking over.
This is because Alabama has a resources and structural advantage as a program most cannot even sniff at. Historically, Alabama is a top-three program in college football. I would argue that even in the aftermath of the latest wave of conference realignment that Alabama is still firmly in the top five. What I am getting at is DeBoer winning with his kind of guys is how he is going to lose his job faster.
Good coaching plus great recruiting will go much further in the SEC than great coaching and good recruiting. Alabama does not care where you are from, so long as you put in the work and you are about winning. My concern is DeBoer may want to reinvent the wheel a bit because he is bringing in one of his guys who was not good enough to be one of Macdonald's guys for a second NFL season.
This hire does move the needle, but Grubb is not the panacea that DeBoer and his staff thinks he is.